I'M SO HAPPY TO BE PREGNANT!!!!

I just spent a few minutes writing a post (below) about how terrible and awful I feel, and how I'm having a very difficult time being pregnant.  It is awfully hard and tough at the moment, but it is also, AWESOME!!!!!!!!!

I am soooooooooooooo excited!!! :)  I am overwhelmed a lot lately with all the 'hard' that comes with this time (that will hopefully be finished soon!!), but it feels like I have a bunch of layers of hard, starting at the outside - physically it's so hard, I'm so sick, then there's the next layer in of emotional hard - hard not being as 'there' as I want to be for the children, hard not looking after my husband and making his food the way I like to, hard being completely helpless and reliant on others to get my children to school, etc., being so useless, bla bla, bla Actually I think the emotional hard is a few layers all on its own.

But THEN, inside of me, right at the centre, surrounded by all the hard, is a sparkling ball of excitement and anticipation and wonder and gratitude and thrill and SO MUCH LOVE, that sends shivers and happiness through all my other layers when I can push aside the 'sick' and 'guilt' enough to let it!!!

Because we're having another BABY!!!!

We have 4 so far and there's not one among them who isn't AWESOME and AMAZING and INCREDIBLE, and one of the BIGGEST BLESSINGS OF OUR LIVES!!!!

And those little angels are sure excited about the baby in my tummy!!  As often as I can stomach it they are lying beside me rubbing my belly and talking to the baby :)  They can't wait to find out whether it's a boy or girl (tiebreaker round!!! ;)), and see it and hold it and cuddle it!! The girls are way too excited about how fat I'm going to get again!! ;)

Lately as I lie on the couch almost constantly, watching the children play, I often find myself just grinning at their awesomeness.  I love the way the girls are joined at the hip every second they're not in school.  Their imaginations are fabulous - they're mermaids, or princesses, or teachers, or pirates, or fairies, or doctors, or Mums, or aunties, or whatever the day brings.  They look after each other, and they look after me.

In this whole long journey so far of me basically being almost completely useless to these girls, they have not waned in their wonderful and helpfulness.  I am completely amazed at how incredible they've been - and I expect them to be good - they usually are!! :)  But they are soooo thoughtful and sweet!  They pray for the baby and me, they ask if they can get me anything, they look after their little brothers, they help out whenever they're asked cheerfully, and without complaint.  I seriously can barely believe how wonderful they are.  And I'm so grateful for them, and grateful that they're not just sick of me being sick and frustrated with the whole business and just wanting more attention.  They are the exact opposite, and have been so comforting to all of us!!  I never want to treat the girls like they have responsibilities like James & mine.  We are the parents, and it's time for them to be children and enjoy their time.  We definitely teach them to work and look after their things and look after each other, but not in a way that makes it their 'role' at this time.  Their role is to grow and learn and progress and love and build beautiful relationships and be happy and feel free and safe.  They'll be parents and homemakers of their own homes one day, and hopefully they will love it like we do!!  I don't want them to have a bad view of having children or a home to look after through any negative connotations of growing up in a big family and having big burdens placed on them through me not doing my job properly, if that makes sense.  Anyway, they have 'stepped up' at this time so beautifully and eagerly, without even being asked, and though they're helping me at times with things that I normally would never ask them to do, I'm so grateful that they're so kind and excited and happy to help, and they have seriously made this hard time so much easier for me by being such angels!!!  I can't stress how awesome they are.  And how cheerful and sweet!!!  And they have been such comforts to their brothers when I am being sick or something and they've led them away to play and distract them while I sort myself out!  Ana cleans the entire house every day she is home.  Without me saying a word to her I'll suddenly notice that they toys are all gone, and she's gone about and tidied everyone's rooms and made their beds.  What 4 year old does that?!  And Maggie gets home and assumes a place as everyone's entertainers and defenders, and reads to her siblings and thinks of fun games for them all to play together while I try to pull myself together.  They are both angels.

And then I watch the boys play.  And they're soooo so different to each other.  SJ is so quiet and sweet, and he has his own little world of cars and planes and dinosaurs, and he likes to share it with people, but it's special for him.  He loves giving cuddles and kisses and grins shyly when he comes and 'plants one on me' ;)  Christian just walks around trying to discover and destroy anything he can get his hands on at this stage, and he's so neverendingly cheerful and persistent and bouncy and loud, and loves being the center of attention!!!  They, unlike the girls, have spent this time fighting hard to get a bunch of attention from me.  If one of them is cuddling me the other will inevitably try to cuddle me too! - It has been very difficult for me when I'm super sick and it's really hard to have them crawling all over me, but what a blessing!  I have these 2 completely perfect and adorable and so different sons, who are so happy and sweet and loving, and love crawling all over me lol.  And SJ is starting to talk SO WELL, and loves testing out his language progress, and Christian is just so ridiculously confident in every way, nothing is a boundary to him.  Watching them makes me feel so happy - until the terror of them both thundering towards me for some quality cuddle time when I feel like I'm going to be sick comes round again ;)

It's been my longest ever break between children, and I am SO EXCITED to have a newborn baby again :)  I'm so excited to hold its tiny hands, and snuggle it all day long!  I'm so excited to feed it and look after it, and be awake feeding it in the middle of the night like we're the only two people in the world who are awake at that moment.  And I am SO excited for the love it's going to be getting from every angle around here!! :)  SJ seems to understand this time that there's a baby in my belly (he was 100% oblivious with Christian lol), and he has been soooo gentle and sweet patting my belly, and the girls are all over it.  They have been super big sisters/mother hens for a good 2 and a half years now (longer for Mags!), and are VERY excited for the new addition to our family.  They are having fun anticipating whether girls or boys will overtake the other in numbers around here, and keep chatting about what all of it's physical features will be, from the curly/straight hair debate to whether one of the children will have 'matching green eyes like Mummy's', or continue the 'brown eyed baby' trend the rest of this family follows :)

And of course James is super excited as well :)  At the moment he's all business trying to get us through this hard time and look after me and the other children, but he is the most incredible dad, I am so grateful he is my husband and our babies' father!!! They are soooooo blessed - we all are! - to have him!!! :)  Sometime in the first few hours after bub is born, we always manage to have some time up at the hospital while our other children are with our mums, and I will rest while James holds the tiny new baby in his arms and gets to know him or her.  It's such a beautiful time for both of them and I'm excited to see him bonding with the next one!!! :)

I know it's going to be hard/busy when bub is born next year.  When we had Christian last year and suddenly had 4 children 4 and under it was struggle time for me - I think it took me about 7 months to feel like I got my head above water again!!! But what a blessing of a challenge!!! By the time this 5th one is born Maggie will have turned 6 already, and she and Ana will both be in school full time, so I'll just have the 3 at home each day.  Every baby we have had has been such a happy, wonderful miracle in our lives, I really can't express how happy we are to know there's another on its way.  We feel sooo blessed!!!  When we were first married and it took us a long time to finally get Maggie, I don't think we could have imagined how blessed we would be to be surrounded with such beautiful children so quickly afterward!!

Oh and I know I said it but I'm so excited to have a newborn!!! I've always thought newborns were kind of boring, but since I've had mine, I've realised they're the most interesting, beautiful little things in the world!! :)  I will happily spend hours just staring at my baby, laughing every time it yawns, excitedly pointing every twitch out to James, or whoever is 'fortunate' enough to be nearby ;)  Babies are awesome.  They have no downsides.  Unless you count sleep deprivation as a 'downside', which you might be justified in doing ;)  But they are just perfect, and straight from God, and it's so exciting to be holding in your arms the tiny bub that's been chilling out in your belly for 9 months!! And so exciting for all of us to shuffle down to a 'new normal' in our family, with another little bundle of fabulousness.

So although I mentioned 'the hard stuff' in this post, and in great depth in the post below this one, if you look at the video in the post below that one, you'll see how excited I am ;)

Sister Love!

I just got off the phone to my beautiful sister-in-law Jessima who moved far, far away a few months ago now, and it hits me again how much I miss her!  And how lucky I am to be so very blessed sisters-wise.  I was born with an older sister, the Tamster, who's always been perfect in every way - including being the best big sister on the entire planet.  Then Bethany was born, who's one of the sweetest, nicest person you've ever met, she's ridiculously nice.  Both of them are.  And then my brother Jonny married Jessima, who's another one of the sweetest, nicest people you've ever met, and she just opened up her heart to all of us and we all adore her.  Then Micky married Bec, and they've always lived so far away but they still make an effort to come and see us and they've just had baby Saphira and Bec is such a sweet Mama!  Some people don't have any sisters at ALL!!!  And I feel for them terribly!!  James has a half sister who he only found out about semi recently and who he's never met, but I hope one day we do, because I can't imagine missing out on another sister relationship!  She lives overseas, and is about 5 years younger than us I think - maybe more?  But the thought of another sister thrills me.  And I've got another 2 in the bag sometime in the future when Boliver take on their vows and marry another couple for us!  It's so exciting wondering who they'll be! :)  Sisters are so nice.

I feel like such a wonderful parent, because Maggie and Ana have each other.  Forget buying them a swing set - I just birthed each of them their lifelong BFF.  You're welcome, girls :)

And I'm pregnant at the moment (and dying.  Was morning sickness really this bad every other time?!  HOW do I forget this?!) and hoping to give SJ a brother (yes, I'll love it just as much if it's female ;)) so that he can have a brother like I have my sisters.  And while I've been dead and dying of morning sickness Tammy and Beth have both come over and done my dishes and helped with my girls and brightened my days!!  My wonderful mother has been over a LOT, and I've been over there and she's looked after my babies and done the days' meals for us so I didn't have to gag over the sink for hours too.  I am so grateful I can't even tell her properly.  She is wonderful.  And she has so much of her own stuff on at the moment and has been dropping everything to come and help me.  I am so blessed with wonderful women in my life!!

And now I should mention the amazing guys too - from Oliver making me toasties when I was hunched up on his couch the other day to Ben helping with the children and Dad making me Sunday night dinners, I am so blessed - and I haven't even mentioned James, who has been 'The Man' - coming home from work, making dinner, doing dishes, putting children to bed, cleaning everything and then pulling out all his tons of marking and report writing for his reports that are due next week, while I lie limply on the couch barely even pulling out a smile.  And he does all that in addition to looking after me and running out to get me anything that I thought would make me feel better if just for a moment!

So very blessed!  I hope the J's move back one day and we can hang out with them again.  I feel like I took them for granted when they were here and I miss them!!  And Jessima is down there all alone being supermum with her 4 children under 5, baby Jayde only 5 weeks old and Jonny working long hours in the new business!!  And now I so wish I could help them!!  (At least when the morning sickness goes away Jess :P).  It's Jenna's birthday today, and I wish we could see her and cuddle her and wish her happy birthday!!  Maggie talks about Jenna and Jordan and Jacey and Little Baby Jayde 'who we haven't seen yet' all the time, and loved calling her up to wish her happy birthday earlier :)

I'd better dash - my little baby man is crying and he really is the sweetest baby boy I've ever seen in my life, he has me completely wrapped - it makes James roll his eyes at least 20 times a day - another reason it's good I'm pregnant - this way hopefully I won't spoil Stanley-James too much when I get busy with the baby :)  But for now, I'm his - and I'm off.  But I'm really so grateful for my sisters!  And brothers, and parents, and everyone, and this baby in my belly that's making me so sick but I know that I'm going to love it forever, and I'm so excited to be adding another little perfect person to this family who make me feel like the luckiest girl in the world every single day!  Oh poor SJ - really going now! xoxox

Lately I've Been Wondering.......

Lol.  So, so tired! :)

I just started walking again last week, and started working out properly this week.  Last night I was sobbing and wobbling through my training last night while James barked things like "Come on you're not even trying!" and "Breathe!!!", (to which I wanted to yell "I AM TRYING!", and "I AM BREATHING!!!!!" but lacked the energy...sigh...lol).  I was reflecting on the fitness challenge I did and wrote about on here back in July-Sep 2011, and how impossible I thought all the tasks James was giving me then were, and how by the end of it I could do them all!  And lost all my 'Ana' weight! :)

It's hard to focus this time though, because James has developed - through obviously coaching and training people way too much lately - a crazy 'coach' persona, and it makes me want to giggle SO BAD!! He's like some crazy sergeant off a bad army barracks comedy movie, and it sets me off every time he tells me what to do.  Maybe because he's so authoritarian about it and I'm like "James I'm your wife, not some random army cadet you have to bark orders at!" but it was really disrupting my workout, because when you're a body of jelly instead of muscles, and you're desperately trying with all of your might to perform some grossly out-of-your-ability-level-right-now squat or lunge or lift with weights, and somebody makes you giggle, you almost collapse, and nearly die by hitting yourself over the head with your own weights.  And I was tired and James did not think it was funny, so I was a jelly laughing crying determined little mess.  I'm sure I'd laugh about it now if my stomach wouldn't explode with the pain!  I'm meant to be out the door with the girls to the park in 10 minutes, but oh my it's so hard to move, and my fingers are some of the only muscles in my body which can comfortably move right now lol.  Okay, okay - I'll go!  I'd better start losing weight and growing muscles soon, and get FIT - which is the whole point, isn't it?  So I can have some ENERGY to make this lovely family dinner every single night, and fit into some clothes that don't have belly bands in them! :)  Ah, good times!!  Getting up now, eeeeek!! :) xox

PS:  It's really, really hard, but LOVING having 3 babies!!! :)

Happy New Years!!! :)

Had the best New Years Day yesterday!! :)  I've been wanting to get some jobs done lately that just seem so 'big' in my current state!  It was James' last day of holidays and he was SO wonderful, bless him!  And the girls, who have had a crazy last few weeks, amenably slept for hours, so we could just 'do our stuff' :)

First, we got rid of Christmas!  Our house looks so lovely and clean and neat!!  We put away all of the Christmas decorations and cards and cushions, and everything else, and put out our usual house stuff.  Especially after the final vacuum, taking with it the last of the pine needles, it felt REALLY good! :)  I organised all of our Christmas things into new storage and organising containers I recently bought a million of, and love the new organised system!!! :)  I cleaned out the rest of the top of Ana's cupboard while I was there :)  We also managed to find places for ALL of the Christmas toys the girls received - no small feat!!  And I reorganised (even though they'd only had it for a week!) their little kitchen, and when they woke up we went through it together so they KNOW where EVERYTHING goes, and hopefully it's not as crazy in future! :)

Then, we organised everything Baby Boy :)   Until we move in the next few months, he gets 2 drawers to his little name - and a bassinet, if all goes according to plan and it EVER gets here! (We order through a shop which sell everything SO MUCH CHEAPER than everywhere else, but Maggie's cot, which we ordered over 3 months before she arrived, didn't arrive until well after they told us it would, after her birth!  They told us the bassinet would be here before the end of December, but alas - now they're saying end of January - and this boy will be here before then! :s  Hopefully it arrives just after he does?!!).  Anyway, I pulled out all of the lovely boy clothes we got for Christmas, and blankets, and toys, and organised them all :)  This is one of the FUNNEST parts of getting ready for baby :)  I put all of the clothes and blankets in the wash, and then used the drier instead of hanging them out, because it makes them so much fluffier and softer!! :)  I plan on having an ironing day this week, and getting them all beautifully ironed and folded and put away :)  It's so fun doing 'blue'!!! :)   With organising Boy's things, came organising my things too - to pack our hospital bags :)  I'll finish up properly when Boy's clothes are ironed and ready :)  It's all pretty exciting though!  I know I'm not quite in the 'nesting' stage, because as much as I love and was loving getting things ready for him, the urge was not accompanied by any kind of burst of energy, and I had to keep sitting down abruptly and resting cause I felt like I was going to faint half the day! :p  So hopefully that comes soon, and I can have another useful day or two before he gets here :)

We also managed to get out for a little grocery shop in the afternoon, including our first pack of newborn nappies ready to pack into the hospital bag :)  Sadly by that time I ended up sitting on a couch in the shopping centre and James running in to get the groceries (I love grocery shopping! :)), but we did it :)  James had (between helping me get things done all day) also been 'Mr Fix-It'-ing, fixing up a bunch of odd little things - he's always so onto stuff and handy, I love it!  :)

By the time we put dinner away and the girls went to bed, I felt fantastic!!  Everything is so clean and neat and organised right now, happy sigh!! :)  I sat on the couch and ate watermelon and read a book, and at some point fell asleep until James woke me up and took me to bed.  He used to carry me, but the whole 9 months pregnant thing seems to have ended that for now lol :)

So Happy New Years Everyone!!! Hopefully this year is as clean and fresh and exciting as Day 1 was for me!! :)  Bring on our Baby Boy and James starting teaching and everything else - 2013 is looking like our best year yet!!! :)

HE DID IT!!! :)

I feel like I should just mention...

...that JAMES GRADUATED FROM UNI WITH A FABULOUS JOB FOR NEXT YEAR!!!!!! :):):)

No more paperwork for a while :)  - except maybe for him signing the contract :)  We are SO excited and happy and relieved and grateful!! :)  BEST early Christmas news we could have received :)

YAY!!! :)

What a wonderful blessing :)

Boyz II Men :)

So last Friday night, for our awesome 5th wedding anniversary (yay!!) we went down the coast to see...

BOYZ II MEN

!!!!!!

:)

(I know, the title of this post may have given this away a little)

A few months ago I heard they were coming, and when I looked it up tickets had JUST opened, so I immediately bought them!!  THEN I called James, hoping he hadn't already booked us into something else.  Thank goodness he hadn't! :)

We love Boyz II Men :)  I have actually seen them in concert already... twice... but James had never seen them in concert, and we always said if they ever came back we'd go, so awesome that it happened to be on the day of our anniversary!!  Perfect :)

For my own personal record (which is really what me writing on this blog is about!) here are all the concerts I've ever been to... in chronological order.. because I like that :)

2005 Boyz II Men

 With Anitapee :)

Awesome, of course!

2006 Boyz II Men

With Briony :) 

(they came 2 years in a row! They're SO great!!)

2007 Keith Urban

With Tammy :) 

Keith knows how to throw a concert - he rocks!!

2007 Lionel Richie

With James - honeymoon date!!

I actually bought the tickets when we'd just been dating for a little bit, but I figured we would either be still dating or engaged or something by the time the concert came around - lucky! :) Lionel Richie, was amazing, and we loved, loved it!

2010 Tim McGraw 

With Tammy - he was awesome, but cut, cut, cut the 3 preshows!!

2011 Keith Urban

 With Tammy! :)

Seriously his concerts ROCK!!  He's coming back in January, exactly 6 days after my due date (sigh)... so Tammy's going WITHOUT ME for the first time, sigh...  At this concert I was 8 months pregnant with Ana - and we were in the 5th row! - it was AWESOME, I was sooo held back by my giant belly lol :)

2012 Tim McGraw and Faith Hill

Front row tickets with Tammy!!!

AMAZING concert experience, loved every second!!! :)   Wrote about it here...

2012 Carrie Underwood

 - with Tammy - incredible voice, awesome concert!  Wrote about it here...

And yes, Tammy and I are the concert people.  We love them. And we love country music :D

And now 2012 Boyz II Men :) - with James :)

Aren't they so cute?!!!  They've been together for 21 years now, and they've definitely still got it!!

They sang on The X Factor Australia a few nights before we went to see them, and although I'd been really enjoying the X Factor, it was CRAZY how much better Boyz II Men were when they came on!

It annoyed me that they weren't even really advertised for the show - One Direction (via video link lol) and some guy I'd never even heard of got top billing.  Don't people know how AWESOME Boyz II Men are?!!!    And how LUCKY the X Factor contestants were to sing with them?! (SOOOO lucky lol) :)  They were the first CD James had, and 1 of the first 2 Tammy (and therefore me :)) had (oh WAIT Tam! - Was that CD borrowed from one of your friends?!  I just remember listening to it over and over!), so we both grew up loving their songs I guess!  And they rock.

And look what they've been up to since they last visited:

Yay Boyz II Men!! :)  

Anyway our date was perfect :)  James had gotten off work a little early and we'd had a late lunch and outing with the girls, so we weren't very hungry for the buffet dinner at the casino before the show we'd been contemplating having.  To my surprise, not only did James buy me chocolates for our anniversary - and I'm talking 3 boxes of chocolates cause he wanted to make sure he got ones I liked - he suggested we go to Max Brenner for 'dinner' before the show instead!!  So we're talking 82 Days of Health now - we had an awesome pre-show dinner date at Max Brenner :)  Then we went up to the concert :)  I hadn't brought the camera, and iPhone cameras aren't very good (:p) so any photos I tried to take of Boyz II Men didn't really work, but here's James and I in our seats before the show, with some weird funny lighting thing happening on my neck...

We were pretty excited :)  We had fun playing Boyz II Men trivia up on the big screen while we were waiting for them to come out, and when they did (sans pre-show - YAY BOYZ II MEN!!! (I hate preshows...)), they ROCKED it!! :)  

Back in the day, they used to dance a lot - like, old school boy band styles, kind of motown, very choreographed, super cute.  At the other 2 concerts of theirs I've been to I don't remember ANY dancing, but they did kind of a Boyz II Men through the ages thing and totally busted out the moves again, we LOVED it!! :) And those guys are seriously some of the best singers in the whole wide world - when they just chill out and sing a capella together, it's just awesome!  I can't even describe how good they are.  But, the best :)

As they did at the other concerts I've been to, they handed out red roses to people near the front when they sung "I'll Make Love to You", you should have HEARD them going off to 'Down on Bended Knee' - on one knee, and we all got out our mobiles to call our Mums when they sung 'Mama'!  I was in a bit of despair when it was time, because I think there were too many phones going at once and I couldn't get through!! But I kept trying, and got through just in time for Mum to hear the end of the song :)  Once again, they grabbed the phones off people in the front row and sang into them - can you imagine?!  Sigh... :)  Oh I didn't mention... we were pretty far back, because I called and requested an aisle seat cause I knew I'd be hugely pregnant and might need to get out if I was uncomfortable or cramping up or something, so although there were lots of 'closer to the front' seats available, I bought ones closer to the back.  I think James was a little disappointed, but it was still awesome, and I was really, really grateful to be on the end when everyone was up and dancing, because I could stick my head into the aisle and see them dancing away on stage :)

(just thought I'd throw another pic in there - they're getting a bit old these days, but they're the old school cool guys lol :))

The only disappointment was the no t-shirt thing!!  I have a Keith Urban, a Tim McGraw and a Boyz II Men shirt, and we wanted to get James a Boyz II Men shirt, but they weren't selling any!!!!  The only thing they were selling was a meet, greet and photo after the show, but they were pretty pricey and we didn't buy.  James said next time, we're buying lol :)  I'll have to bring a better camera or it'll be wasted!!   Hopefully they come back again one day soon :)

Anyway, I wish I could chuck a video up of the whole thing and share it, but I can't, sigh... I wish I did for me too, so I don't forget!  But it was a fabulous concert and a perfect date :)  See?  Not even our bad date record could spoil these guys!!

And James?  Well, stoked to have been married for 5 years and perfectly happy and in love :)

Can't wait for the next forever!!!!

Dates that Crash and Burn...

James and I go on the BEST dates.  They're memorable, involve spending quality time with my favourite person, and ... well, they're memorable.

Our very first date consisted of us driving around for an hour trying to find a park which was lit up at night.  It turns out, none of them around here are...  So James finally ended up parking the car with headlights shining over a park, and we sat and ate the yummy picnic supper he'd prepared (hot chocolate, marshmallows and Tim Tams - full points for chocolate ratio!), while I was a little nervous about 'bad guys' in the dark at this random park, then we went to a friend's party, and drove my sister and some random friends home.

In the random order they occur to me in, here are some of the other awesome dates we've been on:

• Last Saturday night we dressed up and drove all the way down the coast, to redeem a Spreets voucher I bought a while ago, for a '3-Course Italian Feast'!! - It sounded great, lovely antipasto entrees, beautiful Italian meals and yummy dessert.  I even thought that if dessert looked any good, I might have a 'treat for the week' for the first time since I started my 83 days of health!!  Our first tip was when I called the 'restaurant' to say we'd be running late for our... booking.  I stopped myself from saying 'reservation' by the way the young girl answered the phone, "Something-or-other pizza!".  It sounded like she tried not to laugh as she said "Yeah, okay" and then hung up.  We rocked up to the takeaway pizza place with a couple of chairs and tables for dine-in guests, and at the urging of the 'waitress', sat wherever we wanted.  We sat outside.  She brought us a couple of menus, and just double checking the conditions of the voucher I'd bought, I asked "So, no steak, right?"  She looked surprised, and said "That's right! - We're also out of lasagne  and you can have any dessert you want, but the only dessert available is the sticky date pudding" Ah, okay.  I went to a gorgeous Italian restaurant once, and had an amazing chocolate ... thing ... (if only I could remember what it was, or where that restaurant was, sigh..).  That's what I was hoping for.  No WAY I was ruining my health challenge with sticky date!  There is not a single spec of chocolate in that!  Our entrees were somewhat successful.  They just took a really long time to come.  We looked back and noticed there was a single cook in the kitchen, running around like mad.  After a while, he ran through a door at the back of the restaurant, and appeared in the next door Thai restaurant!!  Apparently he asked for reinforcement, because a moment later he reappeared in the Italian 'restaurant', followed by another cook, taking off his Thai outfit and donning the appropriate apron :)  Awesome :)  Then, a girl walked into the Thai place and placed an order at the front.  She then followed the Thai restaurant waitress out of the Thai place and into the pizza place, where they put her order through on the Italian 'restaurant' till...  either there's something really strange going on or the 2 places are cojoined, and share staff and tills.  For some reason all of this made us giggle like crazy, as did the couple at the next table, who were not hiding the fact that they'd been waiting for their meal for what seemed to be a very long time, and were extreeeeemely irritated.  But with the reinforcement of the Thai chef, eventually all of our meals arrived.  For mains I ordered crumbed chicken with chips (there wasn't a lot on offer!) and James ordered the fettuccine chicken pesto.   I couldn't stop laughing when they brought out James'.  Maybe the 'waitress' should have told us they were out of fettuccine too - but the spaghetti chicken pesto looked awesome :D  And my chicken came with a side of 5 chips, and some bonus veggies and a bonus salad.  We're pretty sure I cleaned the restaurant out of the last 5 chips :)  The tiny pieces of sticky date that eventually made their way to our table didn't look remotely appetising, and James quickly ate both so we could get out of there - running to our car (okay, I was on crutches, so it was more of a fast hobble) through the torrential rain of the crazy thunderstorm which had created the mood for awesome date :)  Thank goodness we have so much fun together, especially when things don't quite turn out the way we expect - Spreets have got to stop calling things 'feasts' and takeaway places 'restaurants'!!
  
• Then there was the awesome Valentines Day Scavenger hunt of 'special places' I put together for James last year.  We started off with the girls and the plan was to go to the playground with them (the first one where we ALMOST had our first date - no lights after dark there ;)) as one of the steps, and then drop them off to Mum's as another step, and after a few stops we'd end up at the temple cliffs where we'd meet up with our awesome friends the Macs, and have a fun picnic.  Due to weather restrictions (like, torrential rain), each stop became about a second long, kind of lamo, and we ditched the hanging out with the girls at the park part completely.  Later the rain died down to almost nothing, but we didn't exactly dwell at our picnic spot at the cliffs!
  
• And while we're on the subject of the Macs - there was the 'Glow Worm Caves' adventure.  We rocked up at a very remote location, where a lone scientist runs a little glow worm expedition on his property, where he accidentally found a glow worm wall (not cave) during a drunk evening stroll which almost killed him.  Really long story, but between the $70 000 outdoor toilet, the glowing mushroom room, the fake glow worm business cards, and the story about the woman who chose the wrong leaf to wipe herself with, the night was extremely informative, absolutley hilarious, and kind of terrifying!!  I couldn't wait to get off the mountain and back to civilisation!!  Obviously, these were not the glow worm caves most people go to and talk about.  Which is probably why it was such a bargain! lol
  
• And speaking of bargains, and the Macs, there was the time they called us to say they'd found a great 'Living Social' deal - an island paradise 2 night getaway for some ridiculously low price.  They said the island was just off Stradbroke, and looked amazing!  They'd already booked theirs for around Australia Day, and did we wanna join them?  Apparently the apartment next to theirs was free, so if we were keen, we should call quickly before it got taken!  It all sounded great.  We said 'We'd love to!' and looked up the bargain.  It became apparent as I opened the deal, that travelling with out of towners was not without risk.  "Why does it say Coochiemudlo?!!!" I exclaimed to James with some panic.  I'm not even worried about hurting the feelings of Coochiemudlo dwellers.  Because after 2 nights, lots of rain, lots of mud, tennis courts with not a raquet or ball on the island, dvd players with not a DVD on the island, a restaurant which 'doesn't open' (don't plan to buy half your meals there...), $10 mini towel hire, and really, really dirty floors, I'm calling false advertising!  They could at least admit that the island is basically a mud slab floating in the ocean! - At least then the 83 other obviously out of towners who bought the deal (haha :)) would be going into it with their eyes open!! Thank goodness for good company - and things only seem to get funner - or at least funnIer - when circumstances are a little tragic... which is why James and I spend so much of our dating times (and that entire weekend!) in stitches...
  
• Last year I was beyond excited when I won tickets to EVERY SHOW put on by a Brisbane theatre company for their theatre season.  That was 6 SHOWS!!!  6 awesome, fun, out of the ordinary and will not even touch the budget dates :)  I've been to see shows by this company many years ago and they were FANTASTIC!!!  Except, they're not anymore.  They're really terrible.  By the last 2 shows we were desperately trying to find excuses not to turn up, but when you've got free tickets to a $65pp show, you really feel like you should go, you know??  Also, we felt sorry for them.  Fortunately the very last show was by far the best, but by then our expectations were so low that all they had to do was hit a lot of the notes in tune.    I kind of want to go into more detail about their very lowest point (which James missed half of because he fell asleep), but I don't want to get specific on the (very, very) remote chance that someone involved catches wind of this and I hurt people's feelings.  But be careful about the prizes you claim.  It was a really painful time for us.
  
• The Proposal:   James had it all planned out - the walkway lit with candles, the dinner, the ring... and he was all psyched to do it for a Friday night in August 07.  Then I accepted an invite for us to have dinner at my brother's house that night - we didn't have anything planned that I knew about!  Rather than tip everyone off to the upcoming proposal by telling Jonny we wouldn't be there, or re-psych himself to propose another day, James simply decided to pull over and propose on the way!  So we got engaged on the side of the road in one of the dodgiest neighbourhoods around :)  Classy ;)
  
• The other week we decided to go on a date to the Southbank Friday night markets.  I haven't been for ages so was excited to check them out.  We rocked up to find out that it was pretty much the only Friday night of the YEAR that the markets aren't on, due to the Brisbane River Festival... sigh... does this stuff happen to anyone else?!
  
• Another time we decided to eat at an Indian buffet at Southbank.  There are so many yummy food choices there, it's pretty hard to fail, but we did.  To the point where when James picked up a tongful of salad, a swarm of flies flew out from underneath.  And we actually saw cockroaches scurrying around under the tables.  Try taking a bite after that!!  We didn't even complain.  We just left.  Shudder!
  
• Then there was our awesome honeymoon.  The first part of it was spent on a houseboat.  We loved every second of it.  Despite the fact that the toilet clogged, we ran out of water and there was a giant river rat onboard which ate a lot of our food, and our Lionel Richie concert tickets!!!! (don't worry - I don't know if the ticket booth people bought our 'eaten by a river rat' story but they reprinted them for us).  By the time we got back to dock and hand over the keys I was DESPERATE to get to a toilet.  But the owner hadn't mentioned he'd be working that day, and wasn't home.  After running up and down the road both ways of the rural river road and determining there was not even a servo nearby, James kindly broke into the guy's house so I could use his toilet, then we waited patiently for his workday to finish.  Fortunately he didn't mind the break-in at all, and was very interested to find out about the rat - he'd suspected that there was one on board...
  
• Every year on our anniversary, we book a little holiday, and I get a bad cold.  Then I lie in bed the whole time watching DVD's or really bad TV, begging James to go out and have some fun without me.  He hangs out with me anyway, and I try to do more than I feel up to and ruin every outing we try to take.  It clears up on the way home.
  
• Often, even if we do manage to have dinner somewhere perfectly nice, they'll forget us, and we'll be sitting there for an hour and a half watching every other table come and go before we ask about our order, or they notice us and bring us our meal with lots of free extras on the side 'for the little wait we had this evening'.  

Our dates often really suck it's true.  I'm sure there are bunches more bad ones that I can't think of right now.  But I don't know if I'd change that - we usually end up having the kind of hilarious time together that you just don't get in more beautiful or serene circumstances.

And we have had a few awesome dates... the Lionel Richie concert they let us in to even though our tickets were in pieces, the time we went and saw Wicked (not the theatre company we won tickets with..) and once we ate at a beautiful Turkish restaurant at South Bank called Mado - recommend!  And there have been many normal dates involving sushi and a movie, and beautiful dates to the temple.  It just seems to be the 'outside the box' events that end in trauma...

Tomorow is our 5 year wedding anniversary :)  We have, a really, really fabulous evening planned.  I was more excited before Tammy asked the other day if we were sure we wanted to do this together, because our hit and miss date ratio is so high.  But risking it we are... I'm sure it's an un-ruinable event... but if everything goes wrong, thank goodness we're in it together!! :)

83 Days of Health: Day 8 ... and a few random bits & pieces...

Healthier Eating Update:  I feel better.  More pregnant & less fat. And just... healthier! :)  Which is actually a pretty good feeling!!  James has suggested I have a dessert a week, like I did back with the fitness challenge, but at the moment I'm enjoying the full de-tox treatment, so I'll keep going 100% for now, and see how I go!  I tend to graze a little at home during the day, so I've been replacing chocolate with peanuts, crackers and hommus, cheese and fruit.  It's amazing how after 3 days fruit felt like a dessert!! (like, really amazing for me!)  I also got some yummy yoghurt at the shops, and eating that with some canned peaches also feels like a dessert - weird, weird!!  This week I had to endure Halloween (that was a bit sad - we had a little party and everyone's scary food looked soooo yummy!), Tammy's birthday dinner including a dessert table with the world's best cake that Jonny and Jessima created, and pumpkin pie - one of my all-time favourite desserts!! - My gorgeous niece Jacey's 1st birthday party involving another one of those cakes, and family dinner - featuring all the leftovers!  But I found it easier than expected, because I knew what I was going to be up against before I went I guess! - Also, I feel like I should be doing this whole thing for health reasons with this pregnancy, so it's easier to say 'no'!  And I am glad I did, today!!

Pregnancy Brain has been blamed for a lot of things surrounding me lately.  I'm suffering from it badly this time! - So many silly things, and I can't seem to form many sentences the right way around!  Not to mention my complete lack of attention span.  At the beginning of this pregnancy I was making myself some toast, and I decided on a slice of honey, and a slice of Vegemite.  I made my toast, and then when I went to eat the Vegemite piece, I thought it tasted really weird - really... sweet.  But it wasn't until I started eating the 'honey' piece that I realised what I'd done, because there was nothing at all on that slice!!
But on Thursday last week, I went to make an online bPayment for our tithing, and after carefully counting James' work hours and figuring out how much he'd made before tax, I made the payment.  Only instead of paying 10%, I paid the full amount.  His entire weeks' wage.  Gone.  Which puts a bit of a dampen on our budget!!! Tithing is one of my favourite commandments to follow, because I can't even begin to tell you the amazing blessings we've received from it, but I kind of needed that other 90%!!! lol.

Ward Changes!  Yesterday we had a special 3-ward meeting at church instead of our usual meeting.  They split the 3 wards and made 4.  James and Mum had been telling me that we probably wouldn't be in the same ward as my family after the split, but I thought that was crazy - we live so close to them! - As if we'd be split!!  But we were!  I really couldn't believe it!  It feels funny to not be in their ward for the first time in my life!  And we're attending at a different chapel too, which is also a bit strange.  But it's exciting for the church! :)  And kind of exciting for us to start in a brand new ward from scratch!  And now James and I are both out of our callings - he was in Young Mens and I've been Ward Music Director and a Visiting Teaching Supervisor, but not anymore!  All new callings in the new ward, we just have a Bishopric at the moment.  Most importantly for us, Dad was released as the Bishop yesterday too - after 7 years!  He was called when James was in his first 6 months of his mission - that seems like a lifetime ago!!  He's the kindest person in the world, and he took the ward through some challenging times.  He has worked so hard, and blessed the lives of so many people.  I can't imagine a more wonderful Bishop, so even though I guess it's great that he gets a rest (he really deserves one, and it'll be nice for him to be able to be around more and spend more time with Mum), and it's been a long time, I'm really sad not to have him as our Bishop anymore!!  Not that our new bishop won't be wonderful as well - he's a lovely man and we're glad to have him in our new ward.  But lots of big changes happening in the church around Brisbane at the moment!! - very exciting.

James is Finished Uni!!  He hasn't graduated yet, but all his classes and assessment are finished, we're just waiting for his results and confirmation of passes (please please please!! - But he feels good about it so I think we're safe!) to graduate!  I booked tickets for his graduation the day they came out, for us, Mum and Dad and Tammy, and James' parents and Nana & Koro, who are flying in for it!!!  So he'd better pass!! :)  I also booked and paid for his robes, and ordered a matching frame to mine to put his degree in.  The university suggest you don't do any of this before it's confirmed that you'll graduate, because you'll lose your money if he doesn't pass, but if he doesn't pass, it'll be the least of our worries!! :P  But I'm glad we booked early cause we got great seats! :)  lol.  Exciting for the girls to see their Dad graduate too :) I can't wait :) If he gets a good job my happiness will be complete!!!

Our boy is due in... just under 11 weeks!!! :D  Which means Christmas is coming quickly!! And James' Birthday, and Maggie's 3rd!!  But I'm so excited for everything that's coming up! :)  And planning to have Christmas presents sorted by the end of November :) - Bring it ON!!!  Also, Maggie already knows 'Away in a Manger', 'Rudolf' and 'Jingle Bells' by heart - so we're ready :)

Last week was crazy busy, and awesome.  3 parties, a fun outing down the coast, a bunch of very late nights, and obviously my brain switched off sometime around April, so it was overwhelming in parts!  This week, we have nothing on at all - at least until the weekend!  The girls and I are ready for some 'down time'.  I think poor James wishes he was, but he's working hard and trying to get job applications in outside hours.  I am excited for when the school term finishes and he's able to have more afternoons off and have a tiny bit of downtime himself.  A job offer would also help increase his work and stress levels!  Hopefully soon! :)

Have a fabulous day!!! :) xox

83 Days of Health: Day 1

I don't get pregnant in a 'hot, skinny with an adorable tiny little bump' kind of way.  I start 'showing' ridiculously early.  Like, before the first 12 weeks is up, people are asking me how far along I am! - It's not even considered 'safe' to tell people yet!!  Most of this is due to the fact that with the particular brand of morning sickness I get, if I don't have food in my mouth I am siiiiiiiiiiick.  So I'm constantly eating, and eating totally random cravings food, like chicken drumsticks and milkshakes.  I've never craved an apple.  And I feel like I'm going to die if I don't get it right then, so as much as my head is saying 'You're crazy!  You're going to put on 30+ kilos again!' (like I did with Maggie.  I know, ridiculous!), my body is saying "I DON'T CARE IF I PUT ON 50!!! - HAND OVER THE DRUMSTICKS!!!".  My head also tells me that if I don't get my cravings and go through the sickness, I probably WILL be one of those 'skinny with an adorable tiny little bump' people - the ones who lose weight through their constant sickness, but when I'm feeling that sick (like death) and I know that there's a way to feel even a tiny bit better, there's no way I'm not cramming whatever my body seems to be wanting into my mouth!  Sounds awesome, hey?  :)  (the baby you get at the end of it, indescribably so! :))

Anyway, after the first trimester and a bit of 'death to the world' sick, I've been lying down almost constantly, and all my pre-pregnancy dreams of 'This time I'll stay fitter and less humongous' have gone out the window.  You're generally safe, according to doctors, to continue whatever fitness regime you were doing before you got pregnant, just be careful, and don't jump up and down at all, or do crazy stuff.  Sadly, if you stop for the first three months, it's not a great idea to try to pick it back up again, so my dreams of playing netball through to the end of trimester 2 went down the drain at about week 3.  I get exhausted after doing.... almost nothing, and in this pregnancy, my tummy has been spasm-ing a lot, hurting like crazy and stopping me in my tracks.  It feels like my tummy muscles don't exist in the slightest anymore, and if I try to do anything that involves a little bit of tummy tension (you'll find that walking, requires this), it goes berserk, and I'm lying down again for the rest of the day.  It's dumb, and annoying.

Last night I was eating a piece of leftover chocolate cake from my birthday, and thinking of one of my maternity outfits, and hoping that it would fit until the end of this pregnancy.  I suddenly wondered exactly how long I have to go, and added up the weeks, realising that as of yesterday, I was due in exactly 12 weeks!!  Hello 3rd Trimester!! And almost BABY!!! YIPEE! :)  But 12 weeks is plenty of time to get even larger, and so I made what James laughed and described as a 'rash' decision (but a good one - you know he's a health nut!), and immediately put the cake down and decided to go off junk food until the baby comes.

Upsides:

1. Hopefully I'll still fit into a lot of my maternity clothes at the end of this thing!  
2. Hopefully less weight to lose when this baby comes out to join us.
3. Hopefully I'll feel better and fitter, and more able to do everything without being as exhausted.  Although I know this may be offset by the whole '3rd trimester' thing!
4. This may even save money!

Downsides:

1. Halloween/Tammy's birthday this week
2. Being able to eat whatever I want when I have a bad 'throwback to morning sickness' day
3. James annoyingly calling this an 'addiction detox' for the next 12 weeks. - Doesn't me being able to go without it just prove it's not an addiction?!!!
4. Christmas - HOLD THE PHONE!!!!

There's no way I'm not eating all the good, traditional stuff on Christmas Day!!!!  Hence, '83 Days of Health', rather than the 84 days that 12 weeks denotes.  I get that day OFF! :)  Sadly I know from past experience that when you're out of the habit of eating junk food, you don't get those skills back in one day, so Christmas may not be all it usually is in terms of me eating a LOT of yummy food, but a taste'll probably do me by then (sigh).

If baby comes early, so does my junk food hiatus.  Not that I plan on gorging myself as soon as he arrives, but I need jelly beans during labour (is that just me?!), and I'll give myself a tiny break before heading into another one of these Fitness Challenges!!  (It totally worked!  I lost everything I'd put on with Ana AND the weight I'd never lost with Maggie!!! : ) And stopped sobbing through each workout (James is a tough PT!) And then I got pregnant again...).  I guess I'll decide what to do when baby comes when baby comes, but there you have it.  So welcome Day 1, of my addiction detox 83days of health!!!! :)  

I'll keep you posted ;)

2 Fun Dates + 2 Dessert Disasters... :)

The first fun date, was the Stake Ball!!! (Cheering) :)  I love stake balls.  I love that we can get all dressed up and going out and eat dinner and dance the night away at least once a year!  I was terribly disappointed that they scheduled last years' ball on the week we were in Adelaide for my Aunty's wedding.  I really hang out for these.  I don't understand people who don't want to go.  Where else can you have totally fun company and the aforementioned dinner and dancing once you're old and married?!! :)  Anyway, I was determined to have found a totally cute maternity dress by the time this came around (have I cried on this blog enough yet about all my favourite maternity clothes that recently vanished?!  Sob!), but I didn't manage it, so I wore black (dreary, but a lot more flattering than white when you're not so skinny!!) and squeezed into a non maternity dress that I won't be squeezing into again for a while!!  From our joint shopping expedition the fabulous Stacey had found a cute dress however, and looked lovely!!! :)  We went as a double date with Stace and Darren.  I actually didn't want to post any pictures till the 'official' pictures came out - we got fun ones with all the couples at our table, but they seem to be taking a while to get here (this was over a month ago) and I thought I'd post these ones from Stace's phone before I forget!!! :)

Our suave dates having some 'bro talk'!!  This is Julian, James & Darren :)

And me and Stace :)  Don't you love our - angle the camera down to us - thing? :)  Awesome :)

We had lots of fun with all the couples at our table, and hitting the dance floor later on :)  Thanks for double dating with us Stace and Darren!! :)

Then the other week James and I took advantage of a Spreets deal I'd bought a while ago for a Korean Bibimbap feast :)  (I seem to be craving Asian food, non-stop, mmmmmmmmmmmmm :) - not in a bad, awful craving kind of way, I just like eating it right now, a lot more than I ever have before in my life :)).

Anyway, Bibimbap did not disappoint - and we loved the little restaurant!! It was a very Korean family feel - almost everyone there was Korean, and they all looked like they eat there all the time and knew each other.  We loved it :)

(Do you like my wrist bling??  Mum bought a bunch of cute blingy jewellery on sale to go in her dress ups for the grandchildren, but I may have stolen these before the grandchildren knew about them... :))

James always loves Asian food, so I think he's enjoying the fact that I've kind of been shunning my usual Italian favourite (mmm cheesy tomatos and antipestos...) and branching out a little :)

And the dessert disasters I'm proud to say, aren't mine, but I had this photo from James' phone so I had to blog about it, sorry Tammy! :D 

Okay, anyone who doesn't already know what this first one is meant to be and can guess it, deserves a whole one (made correctly) to themselves!! :)

A pancake?!  A plate with sauce on it?!  No!  A choc-mint cheesecake!!  Daddy's favourite dessert, that Tammy generously made for him for Fathers' Day!!!! :)  Yes, it's meant to be a little taller, and not falling off the plate...and it should look.....appetising :)

Poor Tammy put the wrong cream in I think - she had been up for hours cooking homemade breadrolls and a bunch of other stuff, including the world's most beautiful and PERFECT apple pie!!!  

I would have included a photo of it, but while she was on the way down to Mum and Dad's place, the car in front of Tammy screeched on its breaks suddenly, and Tammy had to swerve to miss it and slam on her breaks, and the world's most beautiful and PERFECT apple pie flew off its perch on the front seat and slammed into the dashboard with a loud, squelching sound (or so I was told).  It was killed instantly.  What a disaster!!!

Tammy chopped up some fruit and made an impromptu and delicious fruit salad to accompany her choc mint pancake cheesecake, and it was lovely :)

Good times :)

AFL's Newest Fans... Sort of...

Last Saturday night James went with Tammy, Dad, Jonny, Robbie and Jonny's old mission friend to an AFL game.  It was the first live AFL game for at least James and Tammy, and they seemed to have an awesome time.  Robbie is a die hard fan, and I think he was excited to share his passion with the fam a little bit :)  The Gold Coast Suns (who apparently aren't great this season) were playing... some other team, who needed this win to get into the final.  Our family contingent decided to go for the Suns - the closest to a home team playing :)

Tammy sent me some pictures on her phone while the game was on:

This made me grin - such a fun photo!  I asked James later why the sign said 'SUPER'.  He said he asked Robbie the same question, and Robbie said that's just the way it is at AFL  :)

James tells me he was looking up at a ball coming through the goal for this photo - they were right behind the posts.

The other half... :)

James got home 'SUPER' late (haha).  He said every quarter was about 30 minutes... give or take... as in, the refs just call quarter time whenever they feel like it.  He asked Robbie about it, and Robbie said that the refs are usually biased to the home team - so when the Suns were doing well, the quarters went for longer, and then when they weren't doing well, the refs called time at 26 or 28 minutes.  I told James that sounded ridiculous and not legit at all, but he said that's what Robbie said, and Robbie IS the AFL fan after all!

James, Dad and Tammy also seemed very impressed with the refs, and the 'dancing with flags' they do.  I was given demonstrations by half the family :)  Very entertaining.  The refs in AFL are exceptionally intense, and there are strict routines they follow for different calls.  The refs, were James' favourite part of the game.

They also enjoyed the fans.  Apparently they were surrounded by supporters of the opposing team, who were extremely passionate.  Because they were sitting right behind the posts, the ball came into the crowd when the goals were kicked.  There were nets up before the start of the game while they practised their kicking.  Then when the game started they took the nets down, and James said Tammy was horrified - lol!!! :)  But anyway, once when the ball came into the crowd, and a Suns player came to get it off whoever had caught it, and the guy in the crowd who had it seemed to hate the Suns, and he pegged it at the Suns player as hard as he could, then started cheering his head off, all by himself.  By the end of the game the opposing fans were pretty distraught though, because the Suns had an awesome game and won, forcing the other team (whose name I really could have looked up but didn't...) out of the finals!!  (this did not push the Suns into the final - they were already too low :P).

Anyway, sounds like it was a really fun/ny night, and they all enjoyed the experience, even though I didn't hear a word from any of them about the actual game involving players/great kicks, etc!! :)  Tammy actually has a goal to get to a bunch of different sporting events this year, and so hopefully we hear more about it all from her sometime soon :)

I'm excited for when the girls are old enough to go out for fun experiences like this!! :)

A Tiny Paperwork Victory :)

James has just left with his resume and application for one of the jobs he'd most like to be considered for, for next year.  It has felt like he had a big assignment due today - the final copy of his resume all finished and the applications filled out!!  I prayed lots of little silent prayers as I fiddled with the order of information on his resume trying to figure out what would be most important in this potential employer's eyes.  Writing resumes scares me.  I am sooooo excited now that we have a complete resume to fiddle around and tailor to different schools so he can get out there and apply everywhere.  I love the resume too - it looks cool :)  James is pretty qualified and experienced - when I wrote down all the courses he's done and all the experience he has, I was pretty impressed.  I couldn't put toooo much detail about anything he's done in, because it would've been too long, and employers would've gotten bored, but just the dot points of it all look fantastic.  In fact it's taking a little bit of willpower for me not to screenshot it onto this blogpost :)  He's going to be awesome.  Seriously, they'd be crazy not to hire him.  But YAY for a BIG-ger stressful piece of paperwork being finished, and James' first serious application being hand delivered today!!! :)  Bring on the prayers and the rest of the applications, I can't WAIT to see where we're at this time next year!! :)

Teacher Registration Australian Citizenship Job Applications Resume Touch Ups Overdue Fines Bills Budgeting Car Registration Insurance Is Anyone Out There Feeling this Way??!!!

This is my best depiction of me at the moment:

(I was actually going to photoshop my face in, but I couldn't find any pictures of me not smiling, and it really wouldn't have depicted me very well.  Also, I haven't been reeeally blonde for quite some time now.  But the paperwork?  That's spot on!)

I am 'the paperwork girl' in our little family.  Maggie or Ana may usurp me in this call as they grow older, but for now they're about as motivated as James is in the paperwork department.

I take care of budgets and bills and applications and all that jazz.  I used to get a kick out of crossing all the t's and dotting the i's.  I always kind of love a good, completed form that I know won't be sent back for more details, because I didn't miss a thing.  Weird, but we all take pride in something! :)  The last few years have taken a bit of a toll on this pleasant little piece of housekeeping for me though.

Possibly my only real memory when I think of my last semester at uni is the endless paperwork I had to do.  I remember 'photocopying my life' - so many times over that I ended up just photocopying a kazillion copies of my birth certificate, marriage certificate and passport, and getting them all certified at once from a Justice of the Peace.  I'm sure it took ages and the people in line behind me wanted to throw things at my head, but sometimes you just gotta get it all done!!  It seemed like every governing body and every application centre wanted a new bunch of random details (with proof attached - copies of everything certified by yet another Justice of the Peace) and it was crazy.

THEN, we applied for James to become an Australian Permanent Resident.  Boy if I thought graduating was a toll on my satisfaction for completing paperwork, I had another thing coming.  We had to 'prove' we were in love.  Letters and invitations addressed to both of us from the entire course of our relationship and marriage, proof that we stayed in touch through any absences, wedding photos, honeymoon photos, engagement photos, photos at different events, scrapbooks, joint power bills, etc., etc.  Then we had to give in all the usual proof of identity, lack of criminal record, good intentions, upstanding good character, etc for both of us, because I was 'sponsoring' James.  Awesome.  We got it on the spot.  I ended up being super over-prepared, because it turned out that having a baby together proved we were obviously in love (phew!), or at least stuck in each others' lives forever if we weren't!!!  Bless Maggie. 

Anyway, now James is graduating from uni.  I've been steadily dreading this time for the last few months, but it's come, and it's much worse than I even anticipated, because it coincides with us finally applying for Australian Citizenship (for James - I got it at birth :)), and our our annual big bills and renewals, and a bunch of other things.  On the upside, I still have a bunch of certified copies of his life on file, due to my extraordinarily long trip to the JP a couple of years ago.  Sometimes I decide to just leave James' paperwork to James, but when the deadline's drawing close I quickly pick it back up again, because let's face it - I'm just as much in need of him getting his teacher registration as he is!!!  I AM pretty excited about him getting citizenship :)  He just ordered one of the citizenship test books to study from, and I think he's pretty excited too :)

Paperwork I still LOVE and I don't think I'll EVER get over:  Registering the births of our babies and applying for their birth certificates.  How much fun is it writing out the little names you've just given them and declaring them new little citizens of our wonderful country and this world?!!! :)  Awesome :)

Oh, and my BIGGEST paperwork oversight:  Forgetting to return the form asking (as James had come to the end of his drivers licence points from an obscene amount of speeding tickets) if James wanted to go on 'probation' for 6 months, or lose his licence completely for 3.  Because I didn't return it, he automatically lost it for 3, and it was the bane of both of our existences (sigh).  And then it was like it was my fault James lost his licence!!!! (BIG sigh!!).

LOOONG Catch-Up!!!!!

Hey little personal blog/journal!!

It's been a little while since I've written anything remotely interesting on here, and I'm going to unashamedly blame it on being pregnant once again!!! :)  Yay!! :)  I'm just over 16 weeks now though, and have been getting better over the last 4 weeks - I've been pretty great for the last 2, but I'm tired a lot, the usual :)

Since I've been well again though, I've been spending my more awake time having lots of fun and outings with my fabulous girls, who were so patient with me for all those weeks when I lay on the couch uselessly, asking them to be gentle with me and basically being no fun at all!!  I am so GRATEFUL that James took a month off work completely during uni holidays, and got us through the worst of it, and by the time he started back full time (between work and study) I was getting back into it.

It's funny how hard morning sickness hits.  I guess a lot of people never get it, and if you're not grateful for that, you should be.  Because it's awful! - You just feel like you're dying!!! I kept saying to James "This is MUCH worse than the other two times - I'm dying!  This is awful!  I can't do this for 8 more weeks" and so on, but he just said "It's exactly the same sweetie, you've just forgotten!  But you'll get through it and you'll be okay" :) .  He took care of absolutely everything for us - meals, cleaning, looking after the girls, looking after me, running around town trying to satisfy my horrible cravings (I don't have fun cravings.  I've mentioned this before on this blog.  But it's more like "I need a Red Rooster chicken drumstick now or I'll die!" and less like "Hm... I'm craving chocolate.  Please go and buy me 3 blocks and I will eat them and chill out :)).  I was also probably insufferable to be around.  I devoured I don't know how many books, until I ran out, and became bored and more miserable.  I watched a bunch of movies and then got sick of them all.  I watched the entire first 4 seasons of Chuck.  Bless funny, random, light hearted shows you've never seen before for trying to take your mind off things!!  I felt like such a bad mother.  The girls ran riot if James ever went out, and I just felt sooo bad for them! - Bored and cooped up all the time! I'm so glad James was around to take them out and do stuff with them.  And he and Ana developed a wonderful relationship - the kind he's always had with Maggie but Ana's missed out on a little in her early days, because he was home a lot more when Maggie was born and has been a lot busier since Ana.  But they really bonded and it's wonderful to see now :)  She just adores him, and he her.  And Maggie loved having her main man around all the time!

By the end of the sickness, I started to feel like I was crazy, and maybe it was all in my head?  Maybe I was just lazy?  So I'd try to do more, and fail miserably, and end up in bed, much worse than before.  I just felt like I wasn't being a very good person.  And I never wanted to go out and do anything!  I would make plans with friends and then cancel cause I wasn't up to it, and I felt like such a bad friend!   But then I started to have days where I was actually well, and then you realise "Oh, I'm not a bad person - I'm not just lazy!  I was actually really, really sick!!!  Oh my word I feel great today!! I am going to clean my house and take the girls to the park!!  And catch up with friends!!  And make dinner!!" and it's just the most incredible feeling ever.  I keep saying to James "I just can't describe it.  It's like you're in this horrible black hole and you can't get better no matter what and then you start to doubt yourself and you don't know if you're lazy or what and then suddenly you're better!  And you realise that health is the most incredible blessing, and you don't ever realise how wonderful it is until you're stuck in that black hole for weeks on end, terrified that this time it won't end at 14 weeks!"  I don't know how the wonderful strong women (like my mother, who had 7 of us!) who are sick for the entire 9 months manage!  I find it extremely difficult to get through the first three months.

But as a result of that time, the last few weeks have been absolutely fabulously blissful.  I'm back!! And the girls and I have been having a lot of fun, and making up for all our time lost.  They are SUCH great girls, and I feel so lucky to get to hang out with them all day long!  They are the funniest ages and they have me in stitches all day, and they're so sweet and kind and funny!!!  And James and I have been leaving the house again - we even went to the temple last Friday night, and we're going to our Stake Ball tomorow night! - I don't know how I'll go fatigue-wise, but I'm super excited.

As usual, I put on WAY too much weight during trimester 1, but I've evened out a little just in the last couple of weeks, and I've come to terms with the fact that to help me feel a little better during that time, I just have to constantly eat, and to me it's a LOT easier to work out and lose the weight afterwards, than to try and stop myself from eating whatever I want during trimester 1!!  But hopefully I can repeat Ana's pregnancy, not the 30+kg's I put on with Maggie!!

And I am starting to get INCREDIBLY excited as I enter trimester 2, realising that I'm really going to be able to have another baby!! I'm always a little too nervous during the first 12 weeks to let myself be really excited, in case anything happens, but yesterday I went to the hospital and heard this little baby's heart beating for the first time, and in a few weeks we'll be able to find out whether it's a boy or girl, and I can't WAIT!!! That is my favourite part of pregnancy.  I love knowing what we're having.  It really helps me bond with baby.  We name it and talk to it, and I buy it pink or blue (pink so far, but it could be blue this time?! :)) and get everything ready for it, and it feels so much more real.  I can't wait!! James is pretty excited too :)  And so are Maggie and Ana.

So basically everything is complete sunshine at the moment, especially compared to being so sick - ugh!

Random bits and pieces:

• The fabulous Stacey came over the other week, and introduced us to 'Monopoly Deal', the card version of Monopoly.  Games only take maybe 15 minutes max. each, and it's a lot of fun.  I bought it for James for D.A.D (Daddy Appreciation Day) recently, and we've played it so many times he's sick of it, but I'm totally addicted!! :)
• My friend Estelle came over this afternoon to have some stamping fun with me, and she brought us dinner - uncooked.  I'm always saying I wish I were more confident cooking fish cause I love it, so she brought me the uncooked ingredients, and helped me prepare the fish for cooking, and all I have to do is chuck it in the oven half an hour before we want to eat!! Isn't that sweet?!  Dinner and a cooking lesson!! :)
• My Dad got broken into at his office again the other day.  It's happened a lot in the last year, and caused him a lot of grief and business loss, and it's really upsetting for our whole family I think.  Dad is just such a good person, and he works SOOOOO HARD and has my whole life, to support his family, and to have people just break in and take so much from him, is so hard to see.  They've been installing all sorts of security measures over the last year, and they just keep coming back.  This time, they actually like, dug a hole and broke through the bottom of a wall, and like, climbed in underground?! - Who does that?!!!  Anyway, they've had builders reinforce it all and I think they're putting in a new alarm system this time.  We are all praying that they stay away and that this break-in doesn't cause too much more grief than replacing all the valuable things in the office.
• I had to quit netball when I was only a little bit pregnant :(  I really, really wanted to keep playing, and stay fit during this pregnancy, but even though I switched out from Center and started playing on the wings, I was sick and fainting after games, and then you know, spent a really long time in bed doing nothing but being sick, and now I can't go back during this pregnancy.  I guess I'll save the organised sport for between pregnancies!
• James is in his last 6 months of uni.  Can you tell I'm grinning like a cheshire cat while I write this?!  Who knows where he'll be working this time next year?!!!! He has certainly worked hard for this degree, I'm so happy and excited for him, and for our whole family!!!  He will be so relieved to have a break from assignments hanging over his head all the time - I still seem to remember that feeling with perfect clarity!!
• This baby is due, 4 days before Maggie's 3rd birthday.  I'm guessing we won't be throwing her too big a party this year - I might miss it!!!
• Mum is currently designing her and Dad's new house.  I can't wait to see what it ends up looking like!! I couldn't do all the planning she is.  Well, at least, I really wouldn't want to.  Fortunately James will be just as keen as she is in that department - I'll just give him a list of what I want and let him do what he thinks with the rest of it when it comes our time!  Mum always makes things so beautiful though, so I can see why she'd want to do it herself!!  Meanwhile they're in a cute rental, and our childhood house is long sold to a young couple who are just starting a family.  I haven't driven past since they sold it.  I was so sick I didn't even take photos in every room and do any sort of 'goodbye wonderful house I lived in for 17 years!!' tour - which I SO would have done otherwise!!
• Elders Ben and Oliver have been on their missions for a year and 4 months now.  Isn't that crazy?!  They'll be home apparently before I know it, but it seems to be going awfully slowly!! We all miss them like crazy, but we're so proud of them.  They are working so hard and being so faithful and good!!  They make us smile whenever we think of them.  I still can't believe they haven't met Ana!!
• James is working with Dad at the moment. I like to think of them working together - My two favourite guys!!  :)  He's also coaching 3 teams at JPC and helping out with some of the PE classes there.  He's loving what he's doing, but it's certainly keeping him busy!!
• I lost some of my all time, FAVOURITE maternity clothes, and I'm devastated!! James thinks I must've accidentally taken them to Vinnies, and I just want to cry when I think about it!  Went maternity shopping the other weekend and found nothing.  I wish I had my pretty clothes back, sigh!!! 
• The J's live down the road now!  First I was sick, and since we've all had sick babies, but we're going over tomorow for a fun play (Jessima's put together a 'safari' which sounds fun!) and are happy that they're in our ward and we see them more often!! :)
• Baby Hallie = SO CUTE!! :)  And Beth = earth mother!! : ) We're planning on a visit next week - even though she's a lot closer now, the Gold Coast seems so far away at the moment! - But they do live pretty far south.  Hopefully more catch ups soon :)
• Ana and Maggie are so cute.  Did I say that already?!  They're best friends, they are both chatting (Ana only says a few intelligible words, but she's expanding her vocab rapidly(!) and Maggie will talk your ear off, all day, about everything :))  I'm in parenting heaven.  I'm so grateful for them and can't wait to find out what this baby is and then meet it in a few months!!! :)

Okay, My fish is going in the oven, so I'm going to go and watch it.  Hopefully I'll update more regularly soon, but I'm happy to say our little family blog is going strong, and I've been posting weekly on our new creative blog, so I'm sure enough of our little family history is being recorded - maybe just not giant posts about how awful morning sickness is, and how great life is afterwards :)  

Have a fabulous Thursday!!! :)  (Don't you love Thursdays?!  They're definitely one of my favourite days - so much hope on a Thursday I think!! :))

xoxox